SAN RAFAEL — The Marin Community Foundation will no longer be involved in a proposal to construct an affordable housing project at the site of filmmaker George Lucas’s Grady Ranch outside San Rafael, citing uncertainties in obtaining federal and state financing necessary to bring the project to fruition, according to a joint announcement today by the foundation and Mr. Lucas’s real estate company.

NOVATO — Eden Housing celebrated the opening of its second affordable housing development in Marin County last month, completing 60 homes for low-income seniors in a county whose aging population and shortage of rental stock has created an intensifying demand for those initiatives.

NOVATO — Marin Community Foundation today said it is seeking a developer to build affordable housing on filmmaker George Lucas’s Grady Ranch, a property north of San Rafael once pegged for a sizable state-of-the-art digital movie studio.

SAN RAFAEL — The Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center in San Rafael (www.rencenter.org, (415) 755-1115) has expanded its programs since officially opening its doors in late June, welcoming an in-house small business microlender to its facility and unveiling a commercial kitchen to support a swell of North Bay entrepreneurs in the food and beverage sector.

The Marin Community Foundation will help oversee a philanthropic effort on multiple sclerosis research, according to Jansssen Research & Development, a New Jersey-based pharmaceutical subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, which established the fund. …

Dr. Michael Caccavale, an interventional radiologist, has joined Redwood Regional Medical Group in Santa Rosa. He graduated from the University of Arizona with a BS in physiology and public health. …

Sutter Medical Foundation announced that board-certified urologist Dr. Kadee Thompson has joined the foundation in Vacaville. …

The Northern California Center for Well-Being said it will offer technical assistance for implementation of Sonoma County’s new smoking ordinance, which will prohibit smoking in multi-unit residences in unincorporated areas of the county. …

Both Marin General Hospital and Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital received “A” grades on the Hospital Safety Score from The Leapfrog Group, an independent national nonprofit run by employers and other large purchasers of health benefits. …

Marin General Hospital received certification from the Joint Commission for its stroke program and, for the second year in a row, was given the Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award from the American Heart Association. …

SAN RAFAEL – Two business incubator programs are now working to foster entrepreneurial companies in San Rafael, after “Renaissance Marin,” a project of San Francisco-based Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center, opened its doors to clients.

NOVATO — Grants totaling $2 million were distributed by the Marin Community Foundation to various health care agencies in Marin County as part of a$10 million, five-year grant established by Sutter Health.

NOVATO — Lucasfilm has partnered with the Marin Community Foundation to explore options for building affordable housing on the Grady Ranch property near San Rafael that George Lucas originally planned for a sizable digital-movie studio.

SAN RAFAEL — The City of San Rafael, Dominican University and the San Rafael Chamber of Commerce have teamed up with Natural Capitalism Solutions, a nonprofit that consults businesses on greening strategies, to form a partnership aimed at providing businesses with affordable measures for creating sustainable practices.

NOVATO – In celebration of its 50th profitable quarter, Novato-based Circle Bank announced today that it will donate 50,000 pounds of food to two Bay Area food banks, the San Francisco and Marin Food Bank and the Redwood Empire Food Bank.

PETALUMA — Buckelew Programs, a non-profit behavioral health organization that provides jobs and training for people with mental health and substance abuse disorders, has leased over 18,000 square feet of space near East Washington and North McDowell Boulevard where it will open its newest location, People’s Harvest.

NOVATO — The Marin Community Foundation announced today that it distributed $2 million in grants from the Sutter Health Access to Care Fund to Marin County community health centers and non-profit health care agencies that serve residents with little or no health insurance.

NOVATO — The Marin Community Foundation provided a $250,000 grant from the Sutter Health Access to Care Fund to the Marin County Department of Health and Human Services to help prevent and detect disease among uninsured low-income residents of Marin. It was the third round of funds distributed from the $10 million donor-advised fund administered by the foundation.

MARIN COUNTY — The Marin Economic Forum, a private-public partnership aimed at enhancing Marin’s economic vitality, received a $75,000 grant from the Marin Community Foundation. The grant will be allocated over two years to support a variety of programs.

NOVATO – Grants totaling $500,000 were distributed by the Marin Community Foundation to provide health care to uninsured children and to help older adults remain in their homes as long as possible in the second round of funding from the Sutter Health Access to Care Fund.

Marin Community Foundation is making grants of nearly $2 million to support efforts in eight elementary schools across the county. “The foundation realizes that the earliest years of education, starting in preschool and continuing through the third grade, set the stage for life-long success, both in school and beyond,” said Thomas Peters, the foundation’s president. [...]